Bristol Centaurus two stage engines??

Was there ever a Centaurus with two stage supercharger driven from the crankshaft, either experimental or production??

For that matter, was their ever a turbocharged Centaurus??

As far as I can tell from my (limited) references, there never was a 'high altitude rated' Centaurus engine. All the Centaurus engines I am aware of only had a single stage supercharger, mostly two speed, but there were some single speed single stage Centaurus engines.

I was thinking of a developed Sea Fury with a two stage engine, able to protect the fleet from sea level up to near 40000 feet, yet still suitable as a fighter bomber, like the F4U-4 and F4U-5 Corsairs.

Part of the problem is that two stage superchargers NEEDintercoolers and the intercoolers for a 2000+ hp engine take up a fair amount of space. Space that is not always available in a plane that was not designed for it to begin with. You are going to wind up with at least one more lump/bump/scoop if not two which will hurt low altitude performance.

Part of the problem is that two stage superchargers NEED intercoolers and the intercoolers for a 2000+ hp engine take up a fair amount of space. Space that is not always available in a plane that was not designed for it to begin with. You are going to wind up with at least one more lump/bump/scoop if not two which will hurt low altitude performance.

Click to expand...

Yup, but not too bad in the case of the Sea Fury or Tempest II...

In the case the Sea Fury, an oil cooler is fitted to the inboard leading edge of port wing only, the other inboard leading edge having no matching hardware. In a Fury / Sea Fury 'High Fighter' I would be tempted to fit an air to air intercooler into the starboard wing leading edge with the inlet scoop / discharge for the cooling air being a mirror image of the oil cooler.

Interestingly, to me at least, is that the Tempest II carries its oil cooler on the opposite wing. The oil cooler is on the starboard wing, which would imply the above arrangement would need to be reversed, putting an intercooler in the port wing leading edge.

You need a certain amount of airflow for an intercooler. It depends on how much you want to reduce the temperature of the incoming "charge" for the engine. It can vary from about 1 to 3 times the amount of air needed fro combustion. less than 1 to 1 and you don't get much cooling and more than 3 to 1 gets gets increasingly diminishing returns.

Picture of a model of an F4F;

The scoops at 4 and 8 o'clock are for the intercoolers which are actually just in front of the wheel wells and exhaust into them. You can't make the ducts too small or you restrict airflow. both of the cooling air or the charge air.

Here is a picture of one intercooler for F4F ( about 600hp worth)

You need about 4 times the inter cooler plus ducts, the scoops are just a small part.

I would say that the oil cooler opening in the Tempest II is too small for an air to air inetrcooler. It may be adequate for a water:air intercooler radiator, such as is found beneath the front of the engine in 2 stage Mosquitos.

As far as I know, that is one of two inlets for combustion air into the injection carb / supercharger. Both the Tempest II and the Sea Fury appear to have two inlets, one on each wing very close to the fuselage.